Scott Morrison Got To Visit The Graves Of His Ancestors, But When Will I See My Family?

I’m so pleased that Scott Morrison was able to take some some time out of his busy schedule in the UK to stop by an old cemetery and visit the graves of his long-dead relatives. I just wish the same opportunity was afforded to me and the countless other Australians who have living relatives overseas.

Yesterday it was revealed that the Prime Minister’s office had spent weeks planning a visit to the village of St Kevern, 45 minutes south of the G7 summit the PM was attending in Cornwall, so he could visit the birthplace of his great-great-great-great-great grandfather, William Roberts, who was the first of Morrison’s family to make it to Australia as a convict.

The PM also laid flowers at a cemetery where more ancestors were buried, and visited a church where his sixth great-grandparents were married. “It has been wonderful to return ‘home’ in memory of William Roberts,” Morrison wrote in the church’s visitor book, according to the report in the Nine newspapers. After a ham sandwich and a pint at a local pub, it was off to the airport for a short flight to London, and dinner at Stoke Lodge with Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK, George Brandis.

Sounds like a lovely trip. Wish I was there.

A Slap In The Face To Millions Of Australians

One third of Australians are migrants — 7.6 million people who have been separated from their families by this pandemic. That’s not to mention the countless other friends and Australian family who are stuck overseas, unable to return home without spending thousands of dollars and two weeks in hotel quarantine. For many, that barrier is just too high.

In my case, it’s my British husband’s family who we miss every day. The last time we saw them was for our wedding in London in 2019. It was the first and likely only time that both of our families would be in the same room together. Had we have known it would be three years before we’d see each other again, we might have asked  the DJ to play one more song.

According to the May budget, we won’t have a chance to make it back to the UK before at least the middle of 2022. That’s three years of missed birthdays, weddings, funerals and quiet family lunches. We are watching our niece and nephews grow up over Zoom and on Instagram. Today is Oliver’s 11th birthday. Mila turned five in May. They’ll be different people by the time we get to hug them again.

Our story is just one. There are millions more like it.

Australia’s natural remoteness is likely the best tool we have against a disease like COVID-19, and state and federal governments have generally acted quickly and appropriately to the threat. That includes the strict border closures and quarantine measures that allow us all to live the relatively normal life Australians’ are currently leading. We have always accepted the sacrifices we need to make to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

It’s been incredibly difficult to watch as COVID-19 has ripped through the UK, Europe, America, India and most of the rest of the world. Millions of Australians have watched on helplessly, going to sleep at night wondering if they would see their loved ones alive again. But that was the sacrifice we had to make, we were repeatedly told. The fact that so many Australians have willingly made those sacrifices makes it all the more galling to see the PM posing for happy snaps while he lives out his Who Do You Think You Are? fantasies.

Tregenna Castle (where Scott Morrison was staying) to Newquay Airport: 58 mins
Tregenna Castle to Newquay Airport via St Keverne: 2hr 6mins

It’s not ‘on the way’. pic.twitter.com/yKLzGFRISg

— Hugh Whitfeld (@hughwhitfeld) June 21, 2021

I don’t begrudge the PM for travelling overseas for state business. He’s fully vaccinated and undoubtedly taking appropriate precautions. But is it too much to ask that, while lecturing the rest of us on the need for sacrifice, the PM spends his downtime in a hotel room, not on a personal pilgrimage? How many millions of Australians would love to be given the chance to spend just one day — just a single moment — with their loved ones again? But that’s not an opportunity afforded to us mere citizens.

And Scott Morrison isn’t alone. Victoria’s Chief Medical Officer, Brett Sutton, flew to Canberra in the middle of the most recent Melbourne lockdown. Annastacia Palaszczuk was able to get the Pfizer jab despite not being technically eligible, just in case she needs to head to Tokyo for the Olympics. Meanwhile her government is denying a fully vaccinated man in hotel quarantine a final chance to see his dying father.

It would be nice to have leaders who lead by example, not by exception.

The Hypocrisy Of Scott Morrison

And Scott Morrison knows it too. Why else would he and his office have gone to such lengths to keep the side trip secret? According to the Nine report, the PM’s office had been planning the visit for weeks. His tour guide told the local paper she’d been sworn to secrecy. The PM’s official photographer was on the trip, but no photos were posted to the PM’s Instagram page. It’s unusual behaviour for the ‘Daggy Dad from The Shire’ who loves showing off photos of his chicken coop and Saturday night curries. Let’s go Sharks.

The PM has tried to play down the trip, saying it the church was just a mere ‘stop-off’, or an example of ‘soft diplomacy’. It’s reminiscent of past excuses we’ve heard from the PM when he’s been caught out. We saw the same behaviour when the PM and his family secretly jetted off to Hawaii in the middle of bushfire crisis. Just like Cornwall, the PM’s office tried to hide the truth until they had no choice. In that case, the PM rushed back home and apologised. But this time, we’re told the side-trip was no big deal.

It may not be to him, but it sure is for the millions of Australians who don’t know when they’ll see their loved ones again.

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Rob Stott is the Editorial Director of Junkee Media. Follow him on Twitter @Rob_Stott.